J.P. Morgan Chase makes record settlement for violations

J.P. Morgan Chase settled with the U.S. Treasury Department last week to pay $88 million for sanctions violations last week. It’s the largest fee a U.S. bank has ever paid.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the U.S. charged that “between December 2005 and March 2011, J.P. Morgan Chase violated several sanctions orders related to transactions with Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Liberia as well as broader restrictions against supporting terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.”

The mega bank claims these were isolated mistakes, but it’s hard to imagine, for example, how a $2.9 million loan to Iran went completely unnoticed for two years.

On its website, J.P. Morgan Chase has a lengthy Human Rights position. Among other things, it states, “As part of our broad effort to ensure that respect for human rights is integrated into the business of the firm, JPMorgan Chase has adopted policies and procedures designed to ensure compliance with legal requirements and which seek to prevent our products and services from being used for improper purposes.”